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Ridley Mayhew
Ridley Marie Mayhew is a friend and protégé of Jack Harmon and a student at Lexington High School. She is introduced in Season Five as an irrepressible and highly intelligent con artist and rock singer who fails to rob Jack several times but later forms a truce with him. She is played by actress and The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen. Life Before Glee (Spoilers From Here On) Ridley was born in 1996 to Elise Mayhew and an, as of yet, unknown man. For most of her life, Ridley was raised by her mother and her partner-in-crime, Alan Caldwell, in various neighborhoods around New York City. Due to the hostile relationship between Elise and her parents, Ridley has never met her extended family and none of them appear to have any interest or knowledge of her situation. Growing up, Ridley was trained by Elise and Alan in the art of the con as well as a handful of other illegal skills such as pickpocketing, forgery, and so on. She was mostly homeschooled by the pair in her early years (which led to her love of literature) and was often kept around their art gallery in order to guilt or charm potential clients. However, by the time she was old enough to attend middle school, she was enrolled in an expensive Upper East Side private school by her mother, though she had an extremely difficult time making friends there. She also developed a love and talent for music at an early age, which was encouraged by Alan. However, Elise wanted Ridley to concentrate on art forgery and forced her to take art lessons. To this day, Ridley is an artist of above-average skill, but she prefers to concentrate on music. For most of her life, as well, she had many inconsistent father figures in the form of the wealthy men her mother had relationships with. For the most part, Elise's flings never lasted more than a year or two. However, she eventually married Byron Holbrook, an extremely successful movie producer, when Ridley was eleven. Ridley and Elise both truly loved Byron and Ridley made her mother swear that she would stop conning him after they were married, a promise which she's not sure her mother actually kept. When Ridley was thirteen, Alan and Elise were arrested for art forgery after their newest employee, a brilliant but very forgetful forger named Harrison, accidentally sold an untreated fake Goya that was in her mother's office. Though Elise, Alan, and Harrison feigned innocence, their combined assets were frozen and they were each arrested on a count of fraud and forgery (the prosecutors accused them of dozens more counts of each, but they couldn't be proven) and were sentenced to five years in prison. Due to Elise's high status, the trial received a fair bit of media attention (and led to the press nicknaming her the "Park Avenue Vixen"). As a result, Byron divorced Elise and Ridley was placed into foster care and enrolled into a local public middle school. For the next few years, Ridley was bounced around multiple foster homes in New York City until she was placed in the home of Craig and Erica Bennett, a loving but somewhat ineffective couple in Queens, nearly a year prior to her first appearance on the show. Prior to moving in with the Bennetts, Ridley had only ever lasted about four or five months in any given foster home. During this time she also transferred to Lexington High School, a specialized public school that focuses on nurturing students' creativity and intellect through the arts. Season Five In New New York, Ridley is introduced as Jack's criminally-inclined protégé, who befriended him after a few failed attempts to rob him, and is making some attempts to reform. It is also revealed that, though Ridley has managed to form decent relationships with most of Jack's friends, she is still having trouble getting Rachel to like her. Frustrated, she turns to Jack for advice about Rachel but, due to being distracted by the backstage drama with 15 Minutes, he proves to be unhelpful. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Ridley takes Rachel out to lunch at the Spotlight Diner in an attempt to bond with her. However, her efforts are in vain as Rachel takes the opportunity to insult Ridley by saying that "the only way she can make friends is by conning them" and that Jack has only been spending time with her because he feels sorry for her. In an effort to not lose her temper, Ridley refrains from defending herself. However, Rachel takes the opportunity to make a crack about Ridley's incarcerated mother. Furious, Ridley decides to call her out by commandeering the stage at the diner and sings Bad Reputation to a mortified Rachel. After she finishes the number, Ridley quickly pays for the meal and walks out of the diner without another word. Ridley lays low for the rest of the episode until Jack shows up at her school and says that Rachel told him about what happened at the diner. Annoyed, Ridley explains her side of the story and tells Jack that she's sick of being judged. Jack then says he'll talk to her, but Ridley tells him not to bother because she's done playing nice with people like Rachel. She is then seen pickpocketing a distracted businessman on the subway during Rachel's performance of People, signaling a return to her thieving ways. Ridley first appears in Bash running around her foster home and mumbling about being late for school. However, before she can leave, she is stopped by her foster parents, Craig and Erica Bennett (played by Hugh Laurie and Jennifer Morrison) who tell her that they don't want her going out by herself at night, due to the increased number of hate crimes around the city. Ridley tries to protest, but Craig cuts her off and tells her to get to school. However, she is surprised to find Jack hanging around outside of her foster home and, after he pickpockets a wallet she recently stole, berates her for returning to her old habits. She tries to take the wallet back and tell him off, but is shut down when Jack tells her about his own efforts to stay on the straight and narrow in high school. She then agrees to stop stealing for the time being, before getting a text from Erica reminding her that her biweekly meeting with her social worker is in a few days. She also receives a text from a friend about an upcoming party, but Ridley seemingly ignores both messages. She is then introduced to Jack's costar, Kylie Weber (played by Brittany Underwood), who she is instantly smitten with, and tries to help Jack teach her how to spot phonies. However, Jack quickly pulls her aside and chides her for flirting with his costar before warning her not to take advantage of Kylie. Though Ridley appears to agree with Jack, she is shown crossing her fingers behind her back. Ridley is at home when she gets the call about Kurt's bashing. However, she decides to keep her distance in order to give her new friends some space. She quickly becomes agitated by being cooped up inside and, on the advice of her foster sister Maisie Roberts (played by Amandla Stenberg), decides to defy her foster parents' new rule and go to the party her friend had texted her about. At a warehouse in Brooklyn, Ridley meets up with Aneesa Lewis (played by Kat Graham), a well-connected fence and her oldest friend. The pair catch up and sing Ain't No Rest for the Wicked for the other partygoers before discussing her mother's impending release. Ridley admits to her friend that she's been worrying about whether or not she's going to end up in jail like her mom and many of their other friends. Ridley then appears at her biweekly meeting with her social worker, Amanda Yates (played by Tamara Braun), and tells her that things are starting to go really well for her because she finally has some new friends and a life that she likes. Amanda seems pleased by this, but tells Ridley to think long and hard about what she really wants before her mother gets out of prison. After the meeting, she goes to see Kylie and apologizes for her behavior when they met, only for Kylie to kiss her before the screen fades to black. Ridley appears in Tested hanging around the backstage door of the theater as she waits for Jack to finish rehearsing. She admits, via voice over, that she was caught off-guard by Kylie's kiss and has been going a little crazy because the two haven't spoken since that night. When Jack finally appears, Ridley wastes no time asking him about her—only for him to remind her that Kylie is trying to focus on nailing her off-Broadway debut and doesn't need any unnecessary distractions. Ridley nods understandingly and promises Jack that she'll give Kylie her space. However, her promise to Jack quickly becomes more difficult when Kylie starts texting Ridley and asking to hang out with her. Finding herself unable to get the ingénue out of her head, Ridley agrees to meet Kylie for dinner at the Spotlight Diner. At the diner, Ridley and Kylie bond over their shared love of musicals. However, when Kylie asks her about her family, Ridley panics and claims that she lives with her aunt and uncle because her parents are almost constantly away on business trips. She is then surprised with Kylie begins subtly flirting with her, and admits to the ingénue that she's been driving her crazy since the kiss. The pair then sing the harmonies of Let's Wait Awhile, which ends with Ridley innocently kissing Kylie's cheek. Ridley and Kylie then meet a few days later in Central Park and discuss what's going on between them. They mutually admit that they want to date each other, but agree to take things slow. Ridley smiles happily at this new arrangement, before grabbing Kylie's hand as they leave the park together. In Opening Night, Ridley and Kylie are seen fervently making out on the couch in Kylie's dressing room until Jack comes in and makes a joke about paying to watch them. Annoyed, Ridley throws a pillow at him and forces him to leave. Once he's gone, Ridley complains about Jack ruining the mood before she leans in to kiss Kylie again, only for her girlfriend to pull away abruptly. Kylie then admits that she's almost relieved that Jack showed up, because she's not ready to go any further just yet. Kylie then tells her confused girlfriend that, though she wants to have sex with her, she wants to focus her energy on the show first before she takes a new step in their relationship. Ridley is somewhat disappointed by this, but admires Kylie's drive and tells her she's okay with waiting until Kylie is ready. When she finally leaves the dressing room, Ridley comes face-to-face with Jack and Kylie's understudies, Rafe Baxter and Caitlin Marconi (played by Benjamin Walker and Jen Lilley), who makes several snide remarks about the girls and their relationship to Ridley's face. However, an infuriated Ridley is pulled away by Jack before she can do anything violent or stupid. Two days before the opening night of 15 Minutes, Ridley gets a call from Kylie asking her to meet at Central Park. When she arrives, Kylie angrily informs her that she knows the truth about her family and yells at her for lying. Ridley tries to explain herself, but Kylie cuts her off before she can get a word in and storms off. To make matters worse, Ridley gets a call from a furious Jack, who tells her that Caitlin and Rafe told Kylie about Ridley's past in order to shake her confidence, before he coolly tells her to fix the mess her lies have created or he'll make things even worse for her. Hurt by Jack's words and angry at herself for screwing up, as she puts it, "the best thing that's happened to her in a long time" Ridley goes to a midtown bar called Empire. However, after she chats with the bartender, it quickly made apparent that Ridley chose the bar because it's one that Kylie likes. When Kylie does finally make an appearance, Ridley commandeers the stage and sings an acoustic rendition of Whataya Want From Me to her as a way to ask for another chance. The performance moves Kylie, and the pair have a talk about being honest with each other before making up. Having repaired her relationship, Ridley then attends the premiere of 15 Minutes and applauds her friend and girlfriend during their performance of Train Wreck. She is also there to congratulate them afterwards and gives Kylie and Jack congratulatory hugs. The pair then join Jack and and his friends at the gay bar, where Ridley hits it off with Santana, before heading off to celebrate on their own. The pair spend the night together at Kylie's apartment and read the reviews together before Kylie takes her back to her foster home early the next morning. In a moment of genuine trust, Ridley offers to let Kylie come inside the house—only for the pair to be greeted by Amanda and Ridley's convict mother, Elise Mayhew (played by Heather Locklear), who teasingly asks her daughter if she missed her. The Back-Up Plan begins directly after the previous episode, with a shocked Ridley getting a surprise visit from her mother. She then introduces her confused girlfriend to Elise and questions her mother about her release—as she's not due out for a few more months. Elise reveals that she and her co-conspirators were released on parole owing to their good behavior. Kylie then excuses herself from the reunion, much to her girlfriend's dismay. After Kylie leaves, Ridley and the adults agree that she will stay at the foster home until her mother gets back on her feet. The next day, Ridley texts Jack and asks him to meet her at the diner. However, Jack moves the location to an Italian restaurant without any explanation. When she arrives at the restaurant, Jack reveals that the diner was robbed the night before and that the police have no leads. Without any prompting, Ridley denies stealing from the diner—only for Jack to reveal that he doesn't suspect her, but Rachel does. Though annoyed by this revelation, Ridley keeps her cool and tells Jack about her mother's sudden release. She then goes to the apartment that Elise is temporarily staying at and is happily greeted by Alan Caldwell (played by Jack Wagner), her mother's best friend and partner-in-crime. Ridley then questions her mother about the robbery at the diner, only for Elise to causally comment that she needed the money way more than the diner did. Furious at her mother for putting her friends' jobs at risk, she demands that she return the money—only for Elise to coldly shut the idea down. Frustrated, Ridley goes to Washington Square Park and performs Undermine. Ridley, Jack, and Kylie later meet up in Central Park. The girls convince a distracted Jack to talk to Elise who, as Ridley puts it, "has never met a rich boy she didn't like." However, when she and Ethan Pressman go to the penthouse to meet up with Jack the next morning for brunch, Jack answers the door and is uncharacteristically underdressed. Curious, the pair try to weasel information out of Jack—only for Elise to stroll out of his bedroom wearing only a bathrobe before she casually flirts with Jack. Furious that they slept together, Ridley then storms out of the penthouse and berates Jack for getting conned, only for him to admit that he kept his wits about him the entire time and that the tryst meant absolutely nothing. Seeing an opportunity to take matters into her own hands, Ridley asks Jack to keep her mother distracted while she goes back to her apartment. Jack complies and Ridley successfully steals back the diner's money. After some deliberation, she texts Rachel and returns the money to the diner without so much as a word to the diva. Rachel then follows her to the New York Public Library, where she apologizes for misjudging her. The pair then agree to try to be friends and go back to the now Elise-free penthouse together, which shocks Jack. Right as the episode ends, Ridley pulls Jack aside and asks him what he knows about stealing from off-shore bank accounts. Old Dog New Tricks opens with Ridley talking on the phone with Jack and climbing the steps to his penthouse before asking him if their plan has moved forward. The scene then flashes back to the end of the previous episode, where its revealed that Ridley is conspiring with Jack in order to steal all the money from one of her mother's two offshore bank accounts in order to get away from a life of crime and to become financially independent. Back in the present, Jack refuses to answer her and remains very vague about the reason he wants to see her until she gets to the penthouse. When she arrives, she is surprised to find Jack standing over an unconscious English Mastiff. He confesses that his audition with Steven Summers (played by John Goodman) made him so furious that he decided to get revenge on Summers by taking something important to him. So, he kidnapped Summers’ beloved dog, Lady, and now he was beginning to have second thoughts over his actions. Ridley, who is incredibly amused by the whole debacle, attempts to help Jack come up with a plan to return Lady—only for the dog to wake up begin chasing them around the room, trapping Ridley in the bathroom and Jack in his life-sized Storm Trooper armor. This leads to an argument of how they are getting out of the situation as Jack’s tranquilizer gun is on his couch and their phones are in the kitchen. Ridley finally suggests they could try singing to Lady, which Jack thinks is stupid, but soon changes his tune when Ridley begins to sing an a cappella version of Oh, Pretty Woman and the dog starts to calm down, giving Jack the opportunity to get the gun and tranquilize the dog. Ridley then emerges from the bathroom, only to come face-to-face with Jack's cousin, Katie Harmon (played by Kristen Alderson). Katie and Ridley quickly hit it off, at Jack's expense, before she tells them that Summers is out of town for the next week and she gives them the location of his house—as Jack had grabbed Lady outside of a doggie hotel. Jack and Ridley head out to Summers’ house and manage to get inside, only to then be subjected to one of the most bizarre break-in experiences either of them have ever suffered through, only to discover that Summers has been home the whole time and the whole incident was really an elaborate ruse at Katie’s behest to prove if Jack really wanted to be his client. Ridley rails at the pair for their ridiculous trickery—only to be silenced when Summers agrees to take on Jack, who has already passed out by this point from exhaustion. Having had more than enough of the day's events, Ridley leaves to visit Aneesa at a nearby coffee shop. It is then revealed that Aneesa is in on the plan to steal from Elise and informs Ridley that Alan and her mother will soon be upstate for a few days running a con orchestrated by Aneesa's parents—giving them the perfect opportunity to steal from Elise. Ridley texts Jack that they have to move up the plan before the girls head over to the Spotlight Diner, where they both enjoy the performance of Take Me Home Tonight. Ridley first appears in The Untitled Rachel Berry Project inside of Jack's penthouse where she, Aneesa, Kylie, and Maisie are discussing the plan to rob Elise—who is in Buffalo pulling a real estate scam with Alan and Aneesa's parents. It is then revealed that the account, which is located in a notoriously secure Belgian bank, has "Edward Snowden level encryptions" and HarmCo's best hackers have been unable to breech a single level of the bank's security. Maisie offers to look at the bank's security measures herself, which all but Ridley seems to ignore. Meanwhile, to lighten the mood, Jack tells them all about the ridiculous antics of Mary Halloran—who Ridley resolves to avoid at all cost, only to run into her at Mercedes' mall tour debut. The pair have an incredibly awkward conversation about chinchillas during Shaking My Head, but Ridley is quickly rescued by an extremely amused Kylie. She then appears, with Jack and Aneesa, at the New York Public Library where Maisie surprises everyone by quickly bypassing most of the bank's security on a laptop. She promises to have the account cracked in a few more hours—impressing Jack and Aneesa, who simultaneously offer her future freelance work as a hacker. During this whole exchange, Ridley notices something off about Jack and manages to get him to reveal that he kissed Rachel. Ridley, to his surprise, is ecstatic and tells him that she hopes they end up making things work between them. Ridley is then seen at Blaine's showcase, along with Kylie, where she reports to Jack that Maisie cracked the account and siphoned every last penny to her. She offers Jack a cut of the profits, and is surprised when he turns her down. She then dances with Kylie during American Boy and smirks when she sees Jack and Rachel kissing. The next day, Ridley goes to Jack's penthouse to drop off a bottle of expensive bourbon as a thank-you, only to be confronted by her furious mother at the door to Jack's building. Elise then tells Ridley that she'll forgive her—but only if she returns every last cent of the stolen funds and goes with her and Alan to Monaco, where they're planning a long con. Ridley flatly refuses and plays a recording of Elise plotting the Monaco con with several of her usual co-conspirators. Ridley reveals that, with Jack's help, she had her mother's apartment bugged and now has at least a half a dozen tapes of Elise planning to commit several robberies around New York as well. Ridley tells her mother that, though she loves her, if she doesn't back off and let her live her life then she'll give the tapes to the NYPD. Furious, Elise storms off and a sad Ridley watches her go. She then appears at the Spotlight Diner with Kylie and her friends and tells them that she's planning on staying with the Bennett family indefinitely, applying to NYU, and trying to start living a totally legitimate life. She then sings The Ballad of Mona Lisa to the diner's patrons before happily leaving with her girlfriend. Season Six Having burned most of her bridges in New York and in at an odd quandary with her foster parents, Ridley follows Jack and Rachel to Lima in order to help them reconstruct the New Directions. Along the way, she'll make several surprising discoveries that will put her back into conflict with her estranged mother. Personality Once described as "a future criminal mastermind in the making." Ridley is highly intelligent, resourceful, stubborn, manipulative, and dangerously impulsive. Due to being raised by con artists, she is, by nature, very guarded and works hard to protect her secrets. She is also is a skilled liar who would do almost anything in the name of self-perseverance. In addition, she exudes a rebellious persona which is only compounded by her sardonic sense of humor. She is also, much like her mother, a career criminal who has no problem with blending the rules to serve her needs. As such, she often pickpockets random strangers and runs short cons either for profit or to keep herself from growing bored. One of her most profitable schemes is her "forgery market" (which is mostly made up of faked doctors notes, hall passes, and absence forms) which she runs from a disused janitor's closet at her high school. However, despite how she appears, Ridley is not entirely self-serving or hard-hearted. Despite her inability to totally trust either, she loves her mother dearly and tries her best to get along with her foster family. In addition, she shows instances of true loyalty to the people that matter to her, such as Aneesa, Kylie, and Jack and tries to be a better person for their sakes. Songs Solos * Radioactive (The Mark) * Bad Reputation (New New York) * Whataya Want From Me (Opening Night) * Undermine (The Back-Up Plan) * Oh, Pretty Woman (Old Dog New Tricks) * The Ballad of Mona Lisa (The Untitled Rachel Berry Project) Duets * Ain't No Rest for the Wicked (with Aneesa; Bash) Group Numbers * Let's Wait Awhile (with Mercedes, Sam, Artie, Julie, and Kylie; Tested) Running Gags *Most people, upon meeting Ridley for the first time, mishear her name as "Ripley" or "Rigby" and will sometimes make an allusion to the song "Eleanor Rigby", the Alien franchise, or Ripley's Believe It or Not. Ridley will then always correct the mistaken party. *When she's stressed, Ridley has a habit of stealing small shiny objects (keys, silverware, etc.). However, her friends have noticed this and make her empty her pockets before she leaves their respective apartments. *She is rather sensitive to blonde jokes and has a tendency to react violently when they're directed towards her. Crimes Committed * Attempted to steal Jack's wallet, only to get her hands on the decoy (The Mark) * Stole Jack's watch, only to accidentally damage it in the process (The Mark) * Followed Jack and Kurt, while wearing a disguise, to a bar in Hell's Kitchen and tried to steal Jack's wallet (The Mark) * Broke into her mother's apartment (The Back-Up Plan) * Stole back the money that her mother had taken from the Spotlight Diner and returned it (The Back-Up Plan) * Broke into Steven Summers’ house with Jack (Old Dog New Tricks) * Bugged her mother's apartment with Jack's help (revealed in The Untitled Rachel Berry Project) * Stole all the funds from one of her mother's offshore bank accounts electronically with Jack, Aneesa, and Maisie's help (The Untitled Rachel Berry Project) * Stole Roderick's headphones in an attempt to help him loosen up (Homecoming) Trivia * Ridley's most prized possession is an all-black Fender Telecaster (which she refers to as "Morty") that Alan gave her before he went to prison. * Her major musical influences are Joan Jett, Fall Out Boy, Heart, Pat Benetar, Panic! At The Disco, and Queen. * She likes to swear in Mandarin. (revealed in New New York) * Her favorite musical is Wicked and her favorite play is Peter and the Star Catcher. (Tested) * She spent nearly four months in a juvenile detention center after she stole a sapphire ring from one of her former foster mothers. (Opening Night) * She has developed a bad habit stealing from the New York Public Library because she generally can't afford to pay her rather costly overdue book fines. (The Back-Up Plan) * She has a somewhat prominent scar on her right ankle, which she got when a bulldog bit her when she was twelve. (Old Dog New Tricks) * Ridley is, unbeknownst to most people, incredibly nerdy and is very fond of nearly anything sci-fi and fantasy-related. This includes: Star Wars, Sailor Moon, Game of Thrones, Avatar, Firefly, Harry Potter, Pokémon, Lord of the Rings, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Legend of Korra. * She has a brown belt in judo. * She has no idea how to drive a car and refuses to learn how. * She is a big fan of Welcome to Night Vale. * Her signature style of music is mostly pop punk or alternative rock. However, she is also very fond of pop, country, and show tunes and likes to play acoustic covers of multiple genres when she busks. * Her favorite comic book characters are Captain America, Delirium, and Harley Quinn. * She is a big fan of Joss Whedon and possesses a near-encyclopedic knowledge about his work. * She has claimed to be distantly related to George C. Parker, a notorious con man who made his living selling New York's public landmarks to unwary immigrants, and Cassie Chadwick, a woman who defrauded several U.S. banks out of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heiress of Andrew Carnegie. Category:Characters Category:Singers Category:LGBT Characters Category:Criminals